Beyond Friendship Gate

Forest Museum Pieces

This piece is called Viewfinder. I worked on it for quite a while. First I posted it on props like a butterfly specimen. Then I took them off, rather cut them off bit by bit, trying to make it fit in a shadow box. After I destroyed all of my previous work and broke the tree bark half in two, I decided to mount the leather base onto another background. I don’t know that this piece will survive in this format.

But I really love the colors of the lichen. And I loved the idea of the peep hole. I created this piece after longing to be outside during those last days of winter when spring was barely showing her face. It is my favorite time to be alone outdoors in the woods. It almost seems like a chance to explore unknown worlds, especially considering living in a downtown urban environment.

I wanted to include an image associated with a little fairy world. Or something you might hope to discover in the forest. But instead I found this stamp of Russian space exploration and considered that it might be more appropriate. Because a trip in the forest felt that foreign to me at the time.

This is the first piece I created, which isn’t really finished. It is three smaller branches assembled and wrapped in wood shavings from my trip to Penland in 2008. I loved the image of the slanted trees and moss in the December 2010 Anthropologie catalog. Something about the spreads resonated with me and I used a copy to create this piece.

I’m not sure where this series will go, but I brought back a box of tree bark from NC just in case.